


Illiteracy

by eggsinsunnyside



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, In which alien can understand local language but cannot read, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 12:37:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16284740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggsinsunnyside/pseuds/eggsinsunnyside
Summary: She could speak and listen, but reading was something she couldn't understand.Basically if Hat Kid was illiterate.





	Illiteracy

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure anyone has noticed this but Hat Kid is somehow able to understand the planet's language despite being an alien. Mixed this with my inability to read another language as well despite being able to speak and listen to a degree, and thus this one shot was made.

Reading had never been Hat Kid’s strong suite. Sure, she piloted her (beautiful, majestic and most importantly, comfy) ship and that required at least being literate, but she had always looked at the pictures to understand the message.

It just made more sense to her, when she could see the bigger picture rather than imagine it from mind jumbling words. It sunk into her mind, a single image that wouldn’t be forgotten for a long time whereas it was the complete opposite for words. A word could only say so much, but a picture could say a thousand words.

However, it seemed like everyone on this planet loved to read.

Mafia Town was full of words; bright red words spray painted on the walls or neon pink scribbled haphazardly on the bricks. All of it was just a bunch of mess that made no sense to Hat Kid. Hat Kid was just lucky that she could understand the local language enough to get her point across.

Mustache Girl was fast to notice her illiteracy. She was a bright girl, a trait that kept her alive for all this time and out of the mafia’s grubby hands. Mustache Girl had noticed the confused looks on Hat Kid’s face every time she saw one of the town’s graffiti and Mustache Girl’s wanted poster. Considering Hat Kid’s alien origins, it didn’t take long for Mustache Girl to connect the dots.

“That’s my wanted poster.” Mustache Girl spoke up when they passed by another one of her wanted poster, gaining Hat Kid’s attention. “See, above my head says ‘wanted’ and below that is the reward.” She explained, pointing at the characters.

Hat Kid frowned in puzzlement, a silent question of ‘why’ in her eyes.

“Because I’m their enemy. I’m the only one here who’s fighting against them.” Mustache Girl answered solemnly. “Everyone else gave up. They don’t want to be singled out by the Mafia.”

Hat Kid hummed in thought before smiling at Mustache Girl. “Thank you for reading to me.”

Mustache Girl nearly stopped in her tracks at her newfound friend’s voice but beamed back proudly. “We’re friends, right? This is what friends do when they can’t do something.” The blonde glanced at some of the signs that remained undamaged from the mafia and grinned widely.

“Say, why don’t I teach you a few words?”

 

* * *

 

 

“Oi lassie, I need you to read this script right now. We’re about to start filming very soon!”

The Conductor was a very busy owl. Being a movie director wasn’t easy at all, and he had to also compete against that stupid director DJ Grooves on this year’s annual bird award. That meant all of his owls (and lassie) had to be in tip-top shape, ready for shooting, and lastly but not least, know about the newest film’s script.

The lass may’ve been a last-minute addition but that wouldn’t excuse her from the responsibilities of being featured in _his_ movie.

Hat Kid nearly dropped the large bundle of paper that were shoved at her by the Conductor. “Wait-!”

But the owl was already moving away from the child, barking orders at his owls left and right in preparation of today’s shooting. Hat Kid frowned at the Conductor’s behavior and tentatively flipped to the first page of the script.

Hat Kid despaired. She couldn’t read this!

The words were all bunched together that made it barely legible to the hatted child, and to makes things worse, most of the words were very lengthy in size. There were a few words that Hat Kid could recognize from Mustache Girl’s short lesson, but everything else were completely unfamiliar.

She glanced up from the script and looked around the Conductor’s side of the studio. Perhaps she could ask someone to read it out for her?

Hat Kid headed straight to the first owl she saw that didn’t seem to be doing anything and tapped on his shoulder to gain his attention.

“Hm? Oh, aren’t you the little kid that the Conductor got recently?” The owl remarked, “What do you want?”

Hat Kid held up the script in her hands and pointed at one of the unfamiliar words on the print. “Can’t understand.”

The owl picked the script from her hands and adjusted his glasses to read the print better. “Detective? That’s your role I believe. It’s someone who solves a mystery, particularly crime scenes.”

“What about this one?” Hat Kid pointed at another word.

“That’s anonymous. It means someone unknown, like a stranger.” The owl explained, lowering the script enough so Hat Kid could see the word better. “You’re a little kid so it’s no wonder you can’t make sense of some of these words.”  

The owl glanced around him before sitting down and motioned Hat Kid to do the same. “Is there anything else you’d like me to explain?”

 

* * *

 

The Snatcher cackled when the contract tucked itself under the kid’s hat after she had signed it. It was always a good day when an unsuspecting intruder wanders into one of his traps and inevitably hands their soul over to the Snatcher. Especially one that was looking for the Time Pieces that had fell into his forest a few days ago.

“Now as per your contracts, just follow the instructions and who knows? I just might reward you for your hard work.” The Snatcher flashed his usual smile at the kid. It dropped by a fraction when the kid raised their hand at the Snatcher with a frown on their face. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

“This says murder ghost?” Hat Kid asked, pointing at the contract.

The Snatcher leaned slightly closer to look where the hatted child was pointing at. “No, that says fire spirit. You can’t kill ghosts, kiddo.”

The kid made a noise at that before putting the contract back inside her hat and scampered off in the direction of Subcon village. The Snatcher watched for a while before shaking his head and disappearing into the ground.

Weird kid.

The next time he saw the kiddo after sending them off with a Time Piece was when she was supposed to be cleaning the well. Brat had the gall to interrupt him during his reading time.

“What do you want? You’re supposed to be filling out your contractual obligations.” The Snatcher pointed out impatiently, glowering at the girl.

His glare succeeded in intimidating the brat, bring a sense of satisfaction to the Snatcher. Good to know that the kid was scared of him still.

“I-I don’t know what to do.” Hat Kid mumbled nervously, pulling out the contract from her hat.

“What do you mean you don’t know what to do?” The Snatcher repeated with an incredulous tone and jabbed a talon at the contract. “Just _read_ the instructions there, kiddo! Surely it can’t be that hard even for someone-“

“I can’t read.” Hat Kid interrupted.

The Snatcher blinked and paused, his smile dropping in confusion. “You what?”

“I cannot _read._ ” Hat Kid repeated slowly with a frown. “I’m not from around here.” She gestured at the rest of the woods and the sky.

“You could read the other contract perfectly fine though.” The Snatcher pointed out, not wholly believing the little girl’s excuse.

“You told me what to do. That’s how I knew what I needed to do,” Hat Kid corrected and pointed at the contract’s contents. “I cannot understand though.”

The Snatcher stared at the contract, then to the kid. “So let me get this straight. This entire time, you couldn’t read at all.” Hat Kid nodded. “So how did you know that you needed to murder the fire spirits in your first contract?”

“Familiar word.” Hat Kid explained. “An owl taught me the word.”

“So an owl could teach you what murder is but he doesn’t teach you what a well is?” The Snatcher snarked, folding his arms. 

“It was in a script.” Hat Kid informed sheepishly. “Murder on Owl Express.”

“That sounds boring.” The Snatcher scoffed, setting down the book he had been reading and floated down to his small bookshelf. “Well this won’t do at all. I can’t have an illiterate minion since you do need to read your contracts to know what your obligations are.” He glanced back at Hat Kid. “Say kid, how well are you at reading?”

“Can’t read long words.” Hat Kid replied promptly, holding her hands at a distance to show an estimate. “They get too hard.”

“Eh, I guess I can probably change the contracts to use small words for you.” The Snatcher muttered and pulled out one of his books with a spindly talon. “Now get over here. It’s about time someone taught you how to read properly.”

 

* * *

 

 

Hat Kid hummed pleasantly to herself as she dove into her pillow fort. Today had been a very interesting day!

She had never been inside a well before, much less unplugged a giant pipe that hid below it. She enjoyed the climb very much, even if the frigid cold water was slightly terrifying to watch crawling up to her.

However, the most interesting thing that had happened today would be the Snatcher teaching Hat Kid basic literature. For all the nonchalance he tried to pass off to Hat Kid, she could see that he was having fun teaching some of the words to the child.

It had been complicated at first, especially since Snatcher had kept trying to introduce more complex words to Hat Kid. Really, why did silent letters exist? It made reading just more complicated.

Hat Kid sat in front of her diary which had yet to be filled with today’s records of events. It was all written in her home language, the one she was most intimately familiar with but otherwise contained nothing else. At least yet.

Hat Kid had never tried to write a diary record in an entirely different language before. But then again, she could always start now, especially since now she could read and write to a degree. The child grabbed the least dry pen on her desk and began to write.

_Dear journal_

_I thought I saw I some weird Tower poking out from between the trees…_


End file.
